On Applying To Be A Jesuit

This past summer I began writing my fifteen page “spiritual autobiography” for my application to the Society—while dealing with the fact that I had slightly fallen for a wonderful young woman I met in May. A tension inevitably arose from the reality that I felt inclined toward married life at the same time that I was writing about why I wanted to enter the Jesuits. But, as St. Ignatius teaches, fruit is only borne of tension.

If God so wills that I enter the Society of Jesus, I will never raise a family with a woman I have fallen in love with—this knowledge caused me great sorrow this past summer.

I will always miss being a father, and while on silent retreat before the semester began, this sorrow was the focus of my prayer.

My spiritual director advised that I was “mourning the loss of a life [I] will never lead,” an insight which brought me a wonderful consolation and peace of mind. The nature of any commitment is such that in choosing one good, a person closes the opportunity to partake in any infinite number of other goods. In choosing the good of becoming a symbolic father to the faithful, I simultaneously eliminate the potential to become a biological father.

Link (here) to the full original article by David Gregory in the Georgetown Voice.